Unusual Symptoms of Menopause

When asking women what the normal symptoms of menopause are, most would
answer the same thing. However, a small number of women do experience unusual symptoms of menopause, which can make dealing with the change of life more
difficult and frustrating. If you are heading into the menopausal years and
notice things outside of the “norm”, you should take time to talk to your doctor
to ensure the symptoms are not related to something other than menopause. Once
any other problem has been ruled out, you can then focus on dealing with the
symptom.

As you probably know, menopause is described as the end of your monthly period
but only after 12 consecutive months. Therefore, the three to ten years prior to
that time when all the symptoms begin showing up is actually called peri-menopause.
The symptoms experienced during this time compared with regular menopause are
different and again, typically the same for most women. Even so, you will begin
to notice strange things happening within your body, which is usually nothing to
worry about.

For starters, the majority of women going into menopausal years will start to
notice they no longer sleep as well. They may feel mentally sluggish, having
trouble with focus and concentration, and even experience short-term memory loss. Other more common complaints include moodiness, hot flashes, night sweats,
anxiety, and depression. Keep in mind that while these are considered the normal
symptoms, they can develop slowly or come on immediately.

Additionally, the intensity of the symptoms will vary from one woman to another.
Therefore, while your sister may have difficult symptoms that come on all of the
sudden, you may have very slight symptoms that develop over time. You may also
have a friend or family member that only experiences the common things whereas
you find you have unusual symptoms of menopause, which can be aggravating
to say the least. Again, the symptoms associated with the change of life depend
on the woman.

Obviously, as the body no longer produces normal levels of the hormone estrogen,
things happen. For example, you may notice breast tenderness, which is not a
symptom shared by many menopausal women. You may also suffer from bleeding. Now,
it is normal to see changes in the bleeding pattern as you approach menopause
but if you start to have heavy bleeding, bleeding after intercourse, or bleeding
after you have stopped having a monthly menstrual cycle for 12 consecutive
months, this should be checked. It might be that nothing is wrong but this would
be considered an unusual symptom of menopause.

Bleeding during these times could also be a sign of something else going on
within the body to include non-cancerous growths in the lining of the uterus or
uterine fibroid tumors. In more rare cases, bleeding after full menopause years
could be the sign of cancer. Therefore, this should be closely monitored and if
you have any concern whatsoever, talk to your doctor rather than wait to see if
it goes away. The worst thing you could do in this instance would be to ignore
it. Instead, just have your doctor check to make sure everything is fine.

The good news is that unusual symptoms of menopause are indeed rare.
However, you will likely experience things that not every woman has to deal with
such as vaginal dryness, itching of the skin, and even thinning hair. Remember
that the majority of symptoms, whether unusual symptoms of menopause or those
considered normal, are typically treated without much effort. Most often,
symptoms are produced because of the lower estrogen levels so by using hormone replacement therapy or natural remedies to replace the lost hormones, you can
deal with the symptoms much better.

The great aspect of normal and unusual menopause symptoms for women today is
that your options for relief are vast. Years ago, the options for finding relief
were few and far between. Even when hormone replacement therapy was announced,
that soon led to concern as well with more and more women developing various
types of cancer. However, today we see many new prescription drugs and natural
remedies that can make this change of life better. Therefore, if you begin to
notice things that do not fall within the normal range of symptoms or you have
any concern, never assume anything, and while things probably are okay, you want
to pay attention to your body for any telltale signs of impending problems.

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